The badassness of Kidou Senshi Gundam and why SEED is a pale reflection
Seriously, after watching SEED, I can definitely say that the original was superior. If SEED had more of the original's chops, I'd have respected it more.
Well not exactly chops but... Kidou Senshi Gundam was a war story; SEED is more like a heroic saga, with a single person mowing through armies. Amuro Rei may have been a New Type but he didn't bring down Zeon with a single mobile suit: it took a coordinated attack by the Federation, which cost them a lot of people. Heck at the end, RX-78 was scrapmmetal and the White Base went boom.
I think someone else said it better: SEED's post-Gundam-Wing approach of Gundams being able to literally destroy ordinary MS with a negligent flip of the hand ruins much of the original Gundam's message - war is hell. Yeah, SEED has a lot of casualties in the characters but body count doesn't make it more _real_. I have to admit that SEED's story is good - intrigues etcetera flying all over the place; but doomsday weapons and superhumans destroying armies make it less Kidou Senshi Gundam's descendant which are "mecha operas" and more into a "giant robot show".
I know, I know, remake - but I would have really liked to seen what Kidou Senshi Gundam would have been but more streamlined - and a full 52 episode run. But what I got was angsting pretty boys, super mobile suits, crazy megalomaniacs and "Nazis".
In essence: SEED was good but it could have been better.
Well not exactly chops but... Kidou Senshi Gundam was a war story; SEED is more like a heroic saga, with a single person mowing through armies. Amuro Rei may have been a New Type but he didn't bring down Zeon with a single mobile suit: it took a coordinated attack by the Federation, which cost them a lot of people. Heck at the end, RX-78 was scrapmmetal and the White Base went boom.
I think someone else said it better: SEED's post-Gundam-Wing approach of Gundams being able to literally destroy ordinary MS with a negligent flip of the hand ruins much of the original Gundam's message - war is hell. Yeah, SEED has a lot of casualties in the characters but body count doesn't make it more _real_. I have to admit that SEED's story is good - intrigues etcetera flying all over the place; but doomsday weapons and superhumans destroying armies make it less Kidou Senshi Gundam's descendant which are "mecha operas" and more into a "giant robot show".
I know, I know, remake - but I would have really liked to seen what Kidou Senshi Gundam would have been but more streamlined - and a full 52 episode run. But what I got was angsting pretty boys, super mobile suits, crazy megalomaniacs and "Nazis".
In essence: SEED was good but it could have been better.